1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to apparatus for cleaning out rain gutters, and more particularly to a hang bag which is movably suspended from a rain gutter when cleaning a gutter to receive and contain debris from the gutter.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
Homeowners and general contractors commonly clean out rain gutters. To the knowledge of the inventor, no convenient device has been made commercially available for this method of gutter cleaning.
The usual method of cleaning rain gutter is for the laborer to manually remove the debris and throw it on the ground. Then after the gutter has been cleaned, the laborer had to rake up and bag the debris. This method is time consuming and labor intensive. Other disadvantages of this method is that the gutter debris often falls into swimming pools, flower beds, gardens, and onto cars. There is also the possibility of injury to persons in the work area, such as children playing.
To the knowledge of the inventor, there is no prior art that is particularly relevant to this invention. This conclusion is based on the results of a patent search that was conducted and directed toward bags equipped with suspension devices.
Some of the patents found in this search are as follows: Suominen, U.S. Pat. No. 3,973,376; Bumgarner, U.S. Pat. No. 4,201,299; Casper, U.S. Pat. No. 4,250,990; Kent, U.S. Pat. No. 4,516,267; Cusmano, U.S. Pat. No. 4,531,637; Wood, U.S. Pat. No. 4,764,028; Heacock, U.S. Pat. No. 4,805,969; Chasen, U.S. Pat. No. 4,993,583; Kaumeyer, U.S. Pat. No. 4,859,084; and Provost, U.S. Pat. No. 4,955,981.
Wing, U.S. Pat. No. 2,432,845 discloses a bobbin receiver having a bent rod frame with a laterally extending horizontal support section held in a fixed position on a loom frame by a clamp. A cloth bag having a hem at the open top end which surrounds the bars of the frame is secured to the frame. The open end of the bag is held at an incline so that the mouth will be inclined angularly downward to receive bobbins descending along a chute.
Sutter el al, U.S. Pat. No. 3,888,486 discloses a trash receptacle having a flat rectangular support bracket for mounting on a flat surface and a sheet metal ring welded to the support bracket which has a series of circumferentially spaced hooks extending radially outward from the ring. A bag of see-through woven construction has a reinforced upper band with a series of loops which are looped over the hooks of the ring. The bag has an opening in the side with an overlapping flap portion or snaps. Alternatively, a hood is received over the open end of the metal ring to serve as a target. The trash receptacle is similar to a closed end basketball hoop and net wherein the circular metal ring serves as a target for throwing articles into the bag.
Johnson et al, U.S Pat. No. 2,257,058 discloses a bag holder which has a C-shaped hoop frame formed of strap iron with the ends twisted at right angles and bent to provide U-shaped hooks or brackets which engage the edge of a fruit bin. The hoop of the frame has projections extending laterally outward which pass through the meshes of a mesh fruit bag to retain the bag on the hoop when bagging fruit.
None of the above patents have the structural and utilitarian features of the present invention and are not suitable to be suspended from a rain gutter to receive and contain debris from the gutter.
The present invention is distinguished over the prior art in general, and these patents in particular by a hang bag for suspension from a rain gutter to receive and contain rain gutter debris. The hang bag has a generally arcuate bow-shaped frame with a straight side portion covered by a pad and a pair of upstanding curved hooks and a pair of handles. A flexible bag having an open top end is received and releasably engaged on the frame. The hooks are received on the open top end of a conventional rain gutter and releasably and slidably engage the open top end of the rain gutter and suspend the frame in a substantially horizontal position, and the pad is engaged on the outer wall of the rain gutter to maintain the bag in a generally vertical position. In a preferred embodiment, the bag has an opening along one side provided with a zipper to facilitate emptying the bag. Optionally, a trash bag can be placed inside the outer bag to serve as a removable liner. A user can place the hang bag on the rain gutter and remove the gutter debris from the gutter and place it in the hang bag. After one section of the gutter has been cleaned, the user can then slide, or lift and move the hang bag to the next section to be cleaned, and the process continues until the gutter is clean. The hang bag is easily lifted off the gutter and emptied.